George Santayana had irrational faith in reason - I have irrational faith in TV.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Page 187 on Bones 5.15

Bones 5.15 provided a delightful, insightful lesson in the morality of authorship and attribution - to wit, regarding Bones' new novel, featuring the exploits of Kathy Reichs, which is itself a most cool meta-mirror, since Kathy Reichs, a real forensic anthropologist, professor, and author in our world, is responsible for the character Temperance Brennan, aka Bones.

The nub of the novel - its most interesting part for our characters - is what transpires on p. 187, where Kathy and Booth's analog have some kind of fantastic sex. Hodgins gets a look at the page, and discovers mostly to his pleasure that the sex hinges on a technique that is his - one, moreover, which he assumes is pretty much unique. Since Hodgins hasn't slept with Bones, where did she get the details on this? From Angela, of course, who, it turns out, helps Bones edit her novels.

The case - which I haven't yet mentioned - proceeds. It, too, revolves around authorship and attribution - who wrote what and who assumes who wrote what. And there's also an hilarious Japanese reporter, interviewing Bones for a story on Bones the writer. And Sweets has a defining moment which clarifies and changes his life. All of this percolates and develops against the backdrop of the events on page 187 which, as Bones comes to realize, are at least as important as all of the forensic detail and characterization in her novel.

In the real world of writing, stories abound of people who contribute ideas to books and television shows and get nothing but thanks from the author or creator if they're lucky. But in the ideal world that is Bones the television show, Temperance in the end does something amazing and generous: she gives Angela a check for 25-percent of the advance and royalties earned for her novels.

The show may not have happy endings for its victims, and not quite yet for Bones and Booth, but this is about happy and just as it can get for authors and their partners.

About Me

Paul Levinson, PhD, is Professor of Communication &
Media Studies at Fordham University in New York City.His 8 nonfiction books, including The Soft Edge (1997),
Digital McLuhan (1999), Realspace (2003), Cellphone (2004), and New New Media (2009, 2nd edition 2012), have been the
subject of major articles in the New York Times, Wired, the Christian Science
Monitor, and have been translated into 12 languages. His science fiction novels include The Silk Code (1999, ebook 2012), Borrowed Tides (2001), TheConsciousness Plague (2002, 2013), The Pixel Eye (2003), The Plot To SaveSocrates (2006, ebook 2012), and Unburning Alexandria (2013).His short stories
have been nominated for Nebula, Hugo, Edgar, and Sturgeon Awards.Paul Levinson appears on "The
O'Reilly Factor" (Fox News), "The CBS Evening News,"“NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” (PBS),“Nightline” (ABC), NPR, and numerous
national and international TV and radio programs. His 1972 album, Twice Upon a Rhyme, was re-issued in 2009 (CD) and 2010 (remastered vinyl). He reviews the best of
television in his InfiniteRegress.tv blog, and was listed in The Chronicle of
Higher Education’s “Top 10 Academic Twitterers” in 2009.

e-mail received from a reader:Dear Paul, I just dreamed of airships flying between raindrops. I just returned from 2042 CE, where I sold my hardcover copy of The Plot to Save Socrates for seventy million Neo-Euros, because it had your response to this e-mail from way back in 2007 scotch-taped onto the inside of the cover. A Paul Levinson collector paid top Neo-Euro, because of the authentic archaic e-mail printout from you. It turns out that not many of your e-mails from before your tenure as CEO of HBO/Cinemax and terms as United Nations Secretary General will survive that far into the future. So, please respond to this e-mail, to help found my great-grandchildren's fortune. My Will will stipulate that they must share with your great grandchidren. Thanks! Tom